Je Suis Jimmy
Like watching Rome burn,” one news anchor said as Donald Trump’s attack on the media industry entered a new phase. The president has never done well with criticism, constantly going after news organizations and private companies and individuals perceived to be insufficiently supportive or ingratiating. “This is the environment that we’re all operating in, and we’ve known this for a while, where, whether it’s legitimate or not, you have the government as an actor trying to control and shape coverage through a combination of means, one of which is threats,” the news anchor said. But lately those threats feel less empty: The assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has given the administration further opportunity to use its power to influence the media industry and its output — “consequence culture,” as they are calling it. So far, companies have largely shown an unwillingness to fight back. Coincidentally or not, this timidity comes at a moment of intense consolidation in the business, as David Ellison, right after taking over Paramount, sets his sights on Warner Bros. Discovery, with help from father Larry, a recent Trump ally who is expected to be a major investor in the American-owned version of TikTok.
On Wednesday, September 17, FCC chairman Brendan Carr dangled the possibility of punishing ABC over remarks Jimmy Kimmel had made days before about Kirk’s assassination; the late-night host had suggested “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” It happened quickly from there: Nexstar, which owns numerous ABC affiliates throughout the country, said it would pull Kimmel’s show from the airwaves; within minutes, Sinclair, another owner of ABC affiliates, followed suit; then an ABC spokesperson told the press that new episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be “preempted indefinitely.” Trump and Carr took a victory lap, and the president seemed to suggest a similar fate for NBC late-night stars Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. On Thursday, Trump, who earlier in the week had sued the New York Times for $15 billion over articles questioning his success, issued another threat, musing that networks giving him negative coverage deserve to have their licenses revoked.
Inside the media and entertainment companies, the mood among those creating the content under attack is somber. “I haven’t seen a lot of comedy writers or hosts choosing to censor themselves after watching our colleagues get literally canceled. It’s more that we’re horrified and embarrassed by the cowardice of the networks and the choices they’re making,” said a writer for a late-night show. “The people who have the most money and power are the first to give up, and frankly that should be mortifying for them.” Said another late-night writer: “The broadcast networks are beholden to Trump’s FCC in a way cable channels aren’t, but that’s hardly reassuring.” (Cable channels, unlike broadcast, do not use public airwaves and therefore don’t require FCC licenses.)
The decision to pull Kimmel off the air came two months after CBS, following its settlement of a lawsuit with Trump, canceled Stephen Colbert’s show. The latter move at least appeared couched in financial reasons, some insiders I spoke to noted; The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was expensive to produce — more than $100 million a year — and reportedly ran tens of millions of dollars in the red. “We had no idea how much of it was business motivated,” a late-night staffer said of the Colbert decision. “But this is just cut and dry.” As one prominent talent executive put it: “The FCC commissioner threatened ABC and its station partners, and the station partners and ABC took an action based on that threat. It’s never been that clear before.”
Pulling Kimmel was a decision that came from the very top of Disney with CEO Bob Iger and head of television Dana Walden reportedly fielding concerns from advertisers and affiliates. Kimmel had planned to address Carr’s comments on air Wednesday night, but Walden and other senior executives feared that would further inflame the situation, especially as staff on Kimmel’s show had been doxed and received threatening emails, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nexstar, for its part, denied that its decision was influenced by Carr’s remarks or FCC pressure, but, notably, the conglomerate is in the midst of trying to get a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna approved by the agency. “No one is confused — this is all about Tegna and Sinclair’s regulatory approval,” said another talent executive. “It’s super-specific. But it has real impact if it’s not limited in scope.” Multiple executives across television and print publishing said the focus is on ensuring their staffers can continue doing the work. “This is just the latest, right? We are just keeping our heads down and doing reporting,” said one.
At all levels of the industry, the question hung in the air of whether this moment marks a turning point. On Thursday, Carr told CNBC, “We’re not done yet,” and suggested The View, another ABC program, could be subject to review. “Clients are scared for what it suggests is to come. If Kimmel can get fired for that, what might they get fired for?” said another prominent talent executive. Late-night writers are also in a precarious position. “Our show is not in a position to pretend nothing happened in the way that others might be able to,” said one. “If our format didn’t demand it, I think some people who work here would feel safer not putting a target on their backs by commenting on it — which is the point of political censorship.” This writer described feeling newly paranoid: “I haven’t liked or shared any political commentary on social media since Kirk’s killing last week. It all feels like evidence that could be used in bad faith for some future persecution.”
Many feel something fundamental is changing in the industry. “The consolidation happening in the media world is incredibly unhelpful to this. Everyone feels like there’s no safe space, no corporate parent that’s going to stand up for you or protect you,” said the news anchor. “I don’t know that anybody knows how it’s going to end, but I think everybody recognizes the danger that we’re all in.” The Ellisons loom large with reported plans to acquire the Free Press and possibly put founder Bari Weiss in a leadership role atop CBS News. A Warner Bros. Discovery deal would give the family control over CNN too. Some see media companies’ capitulation as yet another indication of their waning power — that in an effort to slow down their decline, they’ve accelerated it. “They’re continuing to remind the audience and the population of their growing irrelevance,” said one network executive. “Personally, I would be a lot more concerned if Jimmy Kimmel got canceled from YouTube.”
For now, there haven’t been explicit directives for journalists or late-night writers to pull punches. But the menacing environment is impossible to ignore. “It’s front of mind, and front of coverage, and you’re living it while also reporting on it,” said a veteran news editor at the New York Times. Still, the Times, in the face of Trump’s suit, finds itself in a better position than other organizations Trump has picked on. “We do not have millions of dollars of research grants from the federal government. We do not need to do business in front of the courts. We are one of the few institutions in America that he has no leverage over,” a Times reporter noted.
Times executives have come out forcefully in response to the lawsuit. Publisher A. G. Sulzberger called it “frivolous,” and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien described it as an authoritarian-like attempt to intimidate independent journalists. (A federal judge essentially agreed, calling the suit “improper and impermissible” as filed.) “The New York Times will not be cowed by this,” she said. “A.G. is the person who I feel like was kind of made for this moment and is increasingly alone in this industry,” said the veteran news editor. “In the past, we could, you know, join with the Washington Post and the L.A. Times, put out a statement about this. It does feel increasingly singular and not in a good way.”